Mechanical toy horse



May El, 193 J. c. SHAFFER MECHANICAL TOY HORSE Filed Jan. 30, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet l J. C. SHAFFER May 11, 1934.

MECHANI CAL TOY HORSE Filed Jan. 50, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Invenior effiiiaffwr' Patented May 1, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

The present invention relates to a mechanically propelled toy vehicle constructed to simulate a horse or like animal including appropriately actuated movable legs sufiicient to support and propel the toy over the surface.

The object of the invention resides in the provision of a mechanical toy horse of this nature which is exceedingly simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, compact and convenient in its arrangement of parts, easy to manipulate, thoroughly eflicient and reliable in use and operation, and otherwise well adapted to the purpose for which it is designed.

With the above and numerous other objects in view as will appear as the description proceeds, the invention resides in certain novel features of construction, and in the combination and arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a side elevation of a toy embodying the features of my invention showing a portion of the body broken away to illustrate interior mechanism.

Figure 2 is a horizontal section taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a vertical transverse section taken substantially on the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is an edge elevation of one of the legs, and

Figure 5 is a side elevation thereof.

Referring to the drawings in detail it will be seen that the numeral 5 denotes a hollow body in the present example shaped to simulate the body of a horse. A shaft 6 is journalled through the body adjacent the center and bottom thereof and has oppositely disposed end cranks '7 on which are mounted pedals 3. A pinion 9 is fixed to the center of the shaft and meshes with a gear 10 on a shaft 11 journalled across the body above the shaft 6 and provided adjacent its ends with oppositely disposed crank portions 12.

Numerals 14 denote legs. There are a pair of front legs and a pair of rear legs. The upper ends of the legs are provided with angular extensions 15 directed toward the center of the body. Each leg is provided with an oblique slot 16 in the juncture of the leg with its extension. Two rods 17 one at the front and the other at 59 the rear of the body are mounted in the body to extend through these slots 16. The ends of the extensions 15 are journalled on the crank portions 12. Each leg 14 is provided at its bottom end with a lateral foot extension 18.

A child sitting on the body turns the shaft 6 thereby turning the shaft 11 through the gears 9 and 10 and the swinging of the cranks 1'7 will cause movement of the legs in simulation of a walking horse.

It is thought that the construction, operation,

utility and advantages of this invention will now be quite apparent to those skilled in this art without a more detailed description thereof.

The present embodiment of the invention has been described in considerable detail merely for the purposes of exemplification since in actual practice it attains the features of advantage enumerated as desirable in the statement of the invention and the above description.

It will be apparent that changes in the details of construction, and in the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed or sacrificing any of its advantages.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is:

A walking toy animal comprising a hollow body having front and rear pairs of slots in its bottom, front and rear rods extending across the body and having their ends supported in the side walls of the body, pairs of front and rear legs, each of which is of substantially inverted L-shape with the long limb extending through a slot in the bottom, with the upper end of the long limb and the short limb being located in the body, the junction point of the two limbs being enlarged with the long limb tapering downwardly from the enlargement, each enlarged part having an oblique slot therein, the slots in the front legs extending upwardly and rearwardly and those in the rear legs extending upwardly and forwardly, the front rod extending through the slots of the front legs and the rear rod through the slots of the rear legs, a shaft having its ends rotatably supported in the side walls of the body adjacent the middle thereof with a crank adjacent each end of the shaft, a crank passing through the inner ends of the short limbs of a pair of front and rear legs and the other crank passing through the inner ends of the short limbs of the other pair of front and rear legs, a long shaft extending transversely through the body and located below the crank shaft, cranks formed on the ends of the second mentioned shaft and located outside the body, pedals on the extremities of said cranks, centrally arranged gears on said shafts meshing with each other, and an inwardly extending shoe forming projection on the lower end of each long limb, for contacting the surface over which the device is moving.

JOHN C. SHAFFER. 

